it is 11:30 london time a looking at olympic park. roughly one square mile and what was an industrial area in london. nine venues for competition as well as the housing for the olympics and paraolympic athletes. welcome back. here's the latest news from london and the xxx summer olympics. the american team includes superstars kobe bryant, lebron

james and lochte left fell ms in the wake. lochte won the gold in the 400 meter individually medley. phelps came in fourth place. today's observer newspaper featured phelps with the headlines triumphs and tears with that sinking feeling. and let's go now to the overall medal count. china leads with six. italy second with five and u.s. third with five, as well. there's a bout of bad weather and could delay the outdoor events. uk officials expect thunderstorms, even perhaps some hail. will the year's olympians with members of the royal family as cheer leelders. the queen said she thinks the games are wonderful. yesterday, the queen toured olympic park and meeting with athletes. in all, the royals visiting more than 30 sporting events. joining me now, royal correspondent, robert jobson. good morning to you, robert. >> good morning, alex.

>> what's been the role of the royals? they have been working but have they been having some fun there? any crazy, spontaneous moments you can share? >> reporter: apart of the queen jumping out of the helicopter? >> that was huge! >> reporter: there's a few spontaneous moments, really, because it's left over to the younger royals, william, hate and harry and zara phillips who's competing to take on the mantle. the royals are here now and seeing them. they're like olympic ambassad ambassadors. >> they absolutely are. are they going out and about on the town and seen where athletes might be or rested up for the next day? >> reporter: going to see where the athletes will be. later in the week the headquarters and then events all the time. last night i think harry was the only one out. we're used to that. he was at a music festival in the west country but out and about plenty on this trip and he'll be turning up to lots of events. today there's prince william at

the soccer and zara come peetding in the equestrian events. >> yeah. and it seems like the equestrian events, if you're a royal watcher and want a sighting of anyone, that's the one to bank on, right? because aren't even the winners presented medals by wills and kate and harry? >> that's what we understand. their going to certainly be watching and cheering on their cousin. it was big presence there today as i say with ann and prince phillip but the duchess of cambridge came when zara competes in the cross country events, one of the top events. >> you mentioned that wills likes soccer. he'll be there. what about harry and beach volleyball? any surprise to watch that? >> reporter: this is the most eligible bachelor in the world and so surprise he turns up at the beach volleyball and will be there next week and watching and

enjoying himself, no doubt. he went out to brazil. he joined in and played the beach volleyball with the girls and i'm sure a star attraction. >> yeah. i should think. also, there will be an equally luminous star there in the stands for gymnastics and everyone watching the wonderful competition there but apparently kate's a big fan and synchronized swimming, too, yeah? >>. >> reporter: at both and wimbledon and cheer on the brit gaem gb there and watch tennis and hockey, too. out more and more and the second week of the olympics prince william is back working as a search and rescue pilot and so the mantle will fall on kate who will a lot of solo engagements and joined by brother-in-law prince harry. >> any security concern there is? traveling with a pretty good security entourage? >> reporter: well, the security here is incredible. i think that the team and everybody connected with it done a great job.

the royals have a specific close protection team. personal bodyguards of special operation 14, armed men and women to guard them and last line of defense but let's hope nothing like that needs to be worried about. >> absolutely. robert jobson, thank you for the update. have fun. >> thank you. >> nbc set a record these games. listen to this. opening ceremony drew 40.7 million of us watching. it was the most watched kickoff to the summer games on record. meanwhile, overseas, the bbc reported an audience of 22.4 million viewers. something to see. you can all catch men's volleyball, our live coverage at 7:00 in just less than half an hour now and the networks of nbc universal, the exclusive home for the london olympics. a lot to choose from. for a complete schedule and learn about the athletes, go to nbcolympics.com. the race for the white house has 100 days remaining but in

pennsylvania over a million voters do not have the i.d. they need to cast their ballots this november and apparently they don't know. this is according to a new report by the american civil liberties union finding more than 1.2 million eligible voters in the state incorrect bring believe they have a valid i.d. a courtroom battle over the voter i.d. law intensifies to decide the presidential race. joining me is luke johnson of "the huffington post." good morning. >> thanks for having me. >> this is the million plus voters in state of pennsylvaniah do you think they could be turned away from polling booths on election day? >> well, a million seems high since some people might have another form of i.d. to cast a vote. but even if it's a third or a quarter of that that's still a huge amount of people that would be turned away from the polls for a law that was intended to combat voter fraud which the state acknowledged in a court

filing is not a problem and not happening in the 2012 elections. >> let's go through what it is that people need. it is confusing to most of us with a driver's license or a photo i.d. and apparently 379,000 eligible voter that is don't have an i.d. at all or one of the three documents necessary to get one. tell me what the requirements are. >> well, sure. well, voting in a sense is more elemental act than getting on a plane or going to a bar or things we need an i.d. for. and the requirements are that you need a passport or a military i.d. or a government i.d. and the state just announced that you could -- they're having a new voting photo i.d. but only half of the pennsylvania counties have such a center where you can get one. and it remains to be seen whether hundreds of thousands of people can be processed in just a few months to get this special new i.d. let alone know they need a photo i.d. to vote. >> luke, are people saying this

could make a difference? look at the race of president obama beating john mccain by something over 600,000 votes, if you have almost double that and you have got people that, you know, 1.2 million people who may not be able to vote, could this be a real game changer? >> absolutely. i mean, john kerry only won pennsylvania by 100,000 voters and it could make a difference for the republicans and one of the republicans even went out and said a few weeks ago that the voter i.d. law would help bring the state to mitt romney. so you could see easily that if 2% or 3% of people could not vote it could swing the vote in a different way otherwise. >> luke johnson there, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me. >> you're welcome. it is a case for inspector clouseau. why so many empty seats? that's next.

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olympic organizers investigating a strange phenomenon inside the sold out venues. empty seats. spectators reported rows and rows of multiple events are having this problem with empty seats. tra tracy potts is live for us this morning. what is it, the early rounds or something in why is this happening? >> reporter: well, it's a good question and it's a question that a lot of londoners, especially want answered, because they're frustrated, trying to get the tickets. they have been told, well, the only tickets available are the $2,500 tickets or $3,000 tickets and then, you know, the camera sweeps and you see in some cases whole sections with no one there. the london organizing committee is looking into it and think

it's corporate seats, blocks of tickets given to corporate sponsors and not given out. not available for you and me and other people to buy online or directly but if the tickets aren't given out, the seats are empty. >> okay. that is so not cool for those of us who would give anything to be there. what about if they have an investigation, tracy, and they find it to be the case, does someone get penalized? is there a problem with this? >> reporter: well, what they're doing now, i mean, they haven't really talked so much about penalizing the companies that haven't given out the tickets. what they want them to do is give the tickets back which may sound strange but they have actually had a big ticket resale effort going on here. they have a whole website for ticket resale so that when people aren't going to use the tickets for some reason, they can put them back in the system and make them available and now a big push out to say if you have the tickets, if you're not using the tickets, give them back to give them or sell them to people who might want them. >> that would make things better. but i'm curious.

for both spectators and the athletes, they want to perform and probably feed off the enthusiasm of the crowd. do you think it's making a difference for the athletes not a good way? >> reporter: sure. you would think so. i mean, not only for the athletes but also for the london organizing committee. when you spend $14 billion to bring the olympics to your city, and then the cameras pan and you have empty seats, people think, is this really as successful of an event as they said that it would be? and so, yes. they want to see those stands full. they want to see cheering fans and why they're really sort of putting the big push out to their sponsors to say, give us the tickets back. so we can get people in the seats. people have been wanting to get tickets. just in this area, stratford, 16 arrests for what we call ticket scalpers. they call them tauters here. they're trying to make sure that

people get in and fill the seats. >> okay. something we've all noticed. thank you for clearing it up for us. appreciate it. we're going to shift our focus back to the battle for the white house in a moment with aing loo at mitt romney's trip to israel. does he really need to go there to gain jewish support here at home? ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go.

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oh yeah. we told you it might be coming and there it is. little bit of misty weather looking at olympic stadium in london. may put a damper on the games today and the competitions but let's hope not too much because while the athletes go for gold, spectators hoping to cash in on the games. london betting houses are taking bets and experts say about $155 million will be wagered legally

on the games and they're not just about the competition. one book maker's offering 11,000 different bets, 50 to 1 odds to rain every day during the olympics. another betting house offered the looniest wager, 1,000 to 1 odds a flying saucer over the olympic stadium in friday night's opening ceremony. too bad for anyone that took that bet. mitt romney's foreign trip could have major influence on what's calmed the swing state of israel. meeting with israeli leaders today and an opportunity to make inroads with jewish voters. a demographic generally leaning to the left and did go solidly to president obama in 2008. let's bring in ely lake. he recently wrote an article titled "is israel mitt romney's new swing state." welcome. >> thanks so much for having me. >> you say that the trip to jerusalem that it actually, you know, could be a turning point

for the gop. why is that? and why do you call israel the swing state? >> well, there are a couple of things going on here. one, mitt romney's visit as a candidate contrasts with the fact as president barack obama has not visited israel despite other visits to the region and barack obama has a particularly icy relationship with benjamin netanyahu, the prime minister of israel, although under barack obama, there's unprecedented military aid and new iran sanctions and some say the most crippling and restrictive on iran to date. >> yeah. when it comes to winning the support of the jewish voters, look at the numbers of 2008. the president swept about 78% of the jewish vote and according to a new gallup poll, jewish registered voters support president obama now 68% to 25% for governor romney. do you think there's anything specific the governor can do during this trip to sway those numbers in his favor? >> privately, republicans tell

me that if they could match reagan's total of 40% of the jewish vote as reagan got in 1980 they would consider that to be a real success. the other factor, though, is that this is a campaign season where we're seeing more unregulated money than any election since watergate. so in that sense, you have a number of these independent expenditure groups, some bankrolled by the billionaire casino executive where you're seeing a lot of this independent money trying to make the case that barack obama is not a very good president for israel. >> i'm looking at the article right now and you say privately people telling you hoping for 40% and you quote a man saying it's going to be hard to get 35%. not impossible. but when you look at the numbers, apparently -- >> he is a democrat. >> let's talk also about the voters, 15% to 20% you say really have yet to make up their

minds. so, could that make the difference if those people really strongly swing for mitt romney? >> in a state like florida, i think those votes are very, very valuable at this point. an enthe other thing you have to understand is that it's also benefit to mitt romney because the, you know, evangelical and pro-israel base and a foreign policy and hawk base of the republican party likes israel and doesn't like obama on israel and in some ways it's a reinforcing message to that part of the base, as well. >> with regard to ben yeah min netanyahu and the close relationship of mitt romney and he working in boston, how much do you think that will offer mitt romney a bump-up, if that is, you know, seen to be a great relationship as opposed to somewhat chilly one between the president and the prime minister? >> i doubt very much to see prime minister netanyahu do anything overt to appear to be endorsing or helping the romney campaign.

heads of state traditionally trying to stay out of u.s. elections but i would love to be a fly on the wall in there. they will have two meetings. i think one happened and then one later this evening in israel at the prime minister's personal residence and i'd love to sort of see what the candidate and the prime minister say to each other. >> yeah. totally agreed. that would be a good thing to eavesdrop on to. eli lake, thank you so much. >> thank you. the u.s. women's soccer team is trying to win the third straight olympic gold medal. what does it take? i'm talking to someone in the know next. [ donovan ] i hit a wall. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going.

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yeah, there you see the rain. but let's hope it doesn't dampen the spirits here today. there's much more exciting and dramatic competition ahead. men's soccer action continues. the women play on tuesday and joining me here in studio, former soccer member, three-time

olympic medalist and nbc sports analyst kate mark-graph. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> let's talk about the women's soccer team. little bit of a scare in the france opening like wow. >> they had been the most impressive side in the olympic games. there's 12 teams and so far only three solidified a place in the quarterfinals, great britain, the host country and great for ticket sales and then brazil and then the united states who have looked impressive and star players are playing with confidence. this is some of the best performance i have seen out of these players. >> really? that's wonderful. when's did biggest rival? like, who would you hope it comes down to u.s.? >> you want revenge against japan. they did it in the biggest stage in the world cup and the one game i think the u.s. should have won and they lost on penalty kicks which is the nature of penalty kicks sometimes. on that given day they lost. >> that makes sense to get

retributi retribution. with regard to talking to them, do you get as second to the athletes? are they nervous and affect their game? sometimes for the better. >> absolutely. i think all athletes do a good job of balancing the nerves and using that as motivation. i talked to a handful of players an give me sound bites. i'm like is this okay and saying i have to have responsible critique and we have a great level of respect. they know what i have to do. i'm paid to talk about them. i never cross that line but i have a good relationship with some of the players. >> the reason you do is you're a three-time olympic medalist and a hell of a player sown when you're watching, how much do you put yourself there and think, oh gosh, i would have done that differently? what is it like being an analyst? >> great thing of being an analyst is we see it from our perspectives and wonderful. i'm watching against clm yeah last night an you get to see u.s. participating in boxing

because abby is sucker punched in the face. you get to see track and field in the soccer game because sinclair of canada and abby chasing mia hamm's goal scoring record and they get closer the olympic games. the beauty of sports undocumented -- the drama you don't know the ending. >> what's cool is you're able to see the entire field. on that field, you don't get to see the details happening at the other end, do you? >> no. you don't get to see it and i don't look this good on the field and enjoying this side much better. >> you look great. i know the hair and makeup is fun. i do it every day. it's all good. very good to see you and have a lot of fun continuing with the analyst work for nbc sports. we're glad you're part of our team. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. the u.s. women's soccer team plays next wednesday live for you on the nbc sports network. that is a wrap of our special early edition of "weekends with alex witt." i'll see you again next weekend at this same